Liberia's first professional military, the Liberian Frontier Force, or LFF, bears a controversial legacy as a colonial, anti-African constabulary. Organized, trained, and commanded by African-American U.S. Army officers beginning in 1910-1911, the Frontier Force was the primary military solution used to brutally subjugate the indigenous tribes of Liberia, 1909-1936. American influence on civil and military life in Liberia is undeniable even in the modern era, where American military advisers continue to train Liberian soldiers as recently as 2012. A National Geographic article from September of 1910, touted the country as the "only American colony in the world."
Liberian Frontier Force Troopers c.1914
Creation of the Liberian Frontier Force, 1907-1910
The Liberian militia was formed to protect the fledgling colony at Cape Mesuardo (which eventually became the capital of Monrovia) from the hostile tribes to the northern interior. The Liberian militia and the U.S. Navy worked to combat the slave trade along coasts of West Africa which was still lucrative in the 1840s-1850s. The officers and generals in the state militia would have been exclusively Americo-Liberian land owners and civil administrators. They were the descendants of slaves or had been born into slavery themselves in U.S. states like Virginia, Maryland, or South Carolina. In Liberia, they were the ruling aristocracy-politicians, generals and officers, and civil servants.
Without a professional military (not withstanding the local militias), Liberia was powerless against the French and British appetite for West African territories. In 1885, the British annexed regions near the Gallinas river in the northeast of the country followed by the French seizing portions of the County of Maryland in 1892 and 1907.* In 1908, the Liberian Frontier Force was created during the presidency of Arthur Barclay. Originally financed through a British loan, the LFF's composition was to be similarly styled on the British West African Frontier Force, according to historian Timothy D. Nevin in his astounding article, The Uncontrollable Force: A Brief History of the Liberian Frontier Force, 1908—1944. There were localized threats in 1909-1910, including the Grebo and Kru who were preparing for armed resistance against Liberian taxation. Coupled with the looming possibility of European annexation, the LFF was established at an important crossroads in Liberia's history.
Map of Liberia & Americo-Liberian Settlement in the 19th Century
*Liberia's County of Maryland began as a separate colony in 1833 at Cape Palmas which had been funded by an American colonization group from the U.S. state of the same name. This short-lived micro republic was located nearly 300 miles away from Monrovia, with it's own capital at Harper. Under the threat of attack by the Grebo, Maryland was formally annexed by Liberia in 1857.
The Pacification of The Hinterlands & The Frontier Force, 1910-1936
Beginning in 1910, a small cadre of African-American U.S. Army soldiers came to Liberia, tasked with directly molding the Liberian Frontier Force. The first to arrive was Lt. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. (b.1880-1970), who later became the first African-American Brigadier General during World War II. President Barclay and his successor, President Daniel E. Howard, 1916-1920, would insist that only African-American officers would be offered commissions in the LFF constabulary following Maj. Cadell's revolt of 1909. See, African-American Officer Corps in Liberia, for more.
Service was difficult in Liberia and by 1911, Lt. Davis, describing the Liberian Frontier Force as "worthless", left Monrovia. The American military mission continued and would have a vital influence in shaping the fledgling Liberian military. The subsequent pacification of the hinterlands in 1910-1921 by the LFF, bears some parallels to American campaign's in the Philippines and Haiti during the same period but is unique in many ways. The Kru rebellion began in 1912, although labor disputes and resistance to government taxation had turned into open revolt as early as May 1909. The Grebo were attacked by the LFF at Rock Town in 1910 but the Frontier Force was repulsed. In December 1913, a large LFF task force led by Major Wilson Ballard, besieged the paramount Kru village on the Rock Cess. The LFF lost eight killed and fifteen wounded but succeeded in totally destroying the village, engaging in a prodigious slaughter of the defenders before scattering the survivors into the bush. This battle was recalled in a New York Times article which illuminated the copious bloodshed at Rock Cess.
In March of 1916, U.S. Navy Captain Frank Schofield and the USS Chester delivered a cache of rifles and ammunition to the Liberians which aided them in suppressing the rebellions along the River Cess. U.S. military rifles were known to Liberian soldiers thereafter as "Schofield Rifles". On 22 November 1915, the LFF launched an amphibious attack on the Kru controlled river areas but it wasn't until June 1916 when the last rebel strongholds at Rock Cess and Sanguin were destroyed. The Gola, from western Liberia and east Sierra Leone, were brought into federal control in 1918-1919. The Germans supplied weapons to the indigenous West Africans and had strong economic interests in Liberia c.1909-1918, but the only direct action related to the First World War occurred in June of 1918, when the German submarine, U-154, shelled a French cable station near Monrovia, killing four Liberians.
The pacification campaigns against the hinterland villages often entailed imposing taxes and taking captives that could be ransomed later. Some villagers were sold into slavery and forced labor which the United States and the League of Nations investigated in the late 1920's. Rape, public floggings, and petty theft were widespread and came to be the preferred methods of the LFF "red caps" and the militia when dealing with their indigenous neighbors. Some sympathetic tribes were employed (or enticed) during this period to fight against rival tribes. From 1920-1921, the pacification of the Kpelle people was undertaken by the LFF, marking the last of the significant hinterland campaigns.
Besides police actions and garrison work on the frontier, mutinies affected the LFF during it's earliest existence. Significant LFF revolts took place in 1909, 1911, and 1917, brought upon by errant pay, a poor officer corps, and widespread political corruption. The militia distrusted the LFF especially after a Frontier Force detachment led Capt. Arthur Brown arrested a Liberian militia colonel and a district commissioner who were then put on trial for the killing of eight tribal chiefs. Both were acquitted of murder but the "Cooper-Lomax Affair" highlighted the divide between the LFF and the Americo-Liberian county militias. Another Kru rebellion began in 1931 which was not completely defeated until 1936. The last LFF mutiny in 1938 involved soldiers guarding the volatile River Cess districts but was otherwise bloodless and inconsequential.
LFF Red Caps in Monrovia 1932
† Between 1908-1922, the Liberian Frontier Force fought campaigns or "police actions" against a staggering amount of different West African tribes or ethnic groups. These included the Gola and Mandingo to the northwest, multiple bands of Kru along the southeastern coast, the Bassa, Kpelle, Gbandi, Mano, Kissi, and the Grebo in Maryland.
African-American officers serving in Liberia were only nominally compensated in relation to how dangerous and stressful their work could be. Majors received $2,000 annually and captains received $1,600, but many of these former U.S. Army veterans were college educated and had good jobs back home, making their salaries minimal for the risk and personal cost involved. The majority of these officers had previous experience in the national guard stateside, the Spanish-American War in Cuba and the Philippines, Mexico, and in the segregated regiments of the AEF during the First World War. In Liberia, they were tasked with training LFF troopers, overseeing road construction, customs and tax collection, and border patrol. Hundreds of outposts and barracks were built and manned throughout the Liberian interior from 1910-1922, with each region divided into twenty three separate districts for military control and civil organization. According to historian Harrison Akingbade, the African-American officer corps in Liberia was highly competitive and the advisers were often quarreling among themselves and frequently fell out with the Liberian government as well. Facing discrimination in society and in the military at home, Liberia gave these officers a chance to command troops in the field with relative independence. Though originally contracted as advisers and training officers, many were thrown into combat and front line service in a multitude of campaigns from 1912-1921.
African-American Officer Corps in Liberia, 1910-1930
African-American officers serving in Liberia were only nominally compensated in relation to how dangerous and stressful their work could be. Majors received $2,000 annually and captains received $1,600, but many of these former U.S. Army veterans were college educated and had good jobs back home, making their salaries minimal for the risk and personal cost involved. The majority of these officers had previous experience in the national guard stateside, the Spanish-American War in Cuba and the Philippines, Mexico, and in the segregated regiments of the AEF during the First World War. In Liberia, they were tasked with training LFF troopers, overseeing road construction, customs and tax collection, and border patrol. Hundreds of outposts and barracks were built and manned throughout the Liberian interior from 1910-1922, with each region divided into twenty three separate districts for military control and civil organization. According to historian Harrison Akingbade, the African-American officer corps in Liberia was highly competitive and the advisers were often quarreling among themselves and frequently fell out with the Liberian government as well. Facing discrimination in society and in the military at home, Liberia gave these officers a chance to command troops in the field with relative independence. Though originally contracted as advisers and training officers, many were thrown into combat and front line service in a multitude of campaigns from 1912-1921.
Major Wilson Ballard, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, lead the assault on Rock Cess but ultimately resigned his commission as the commander of the LFF in April 1915. Capt. Brown led a unit of fifty troopers into the northeast hinterland occupying Tappi in 1915, successfully ensuring the locals paid their taxes. Capt. Richard Newton, well regarded by his peers and his Liberian employers, patrolled the Cavalla (Cavally) River region, 1911-1913. Capt. Newton and his unit gained a degree of fame after saving an undermanned LFF garrison from being overrun by an armed force of 300-400 Kru after they attacked a federal outpost in June 1913.
Lt. William Rountree led the operation which finally ended the Kru Rebellions in June of 1916. His Frontier Force detachment battled for three days at Sanguin on the Rock Cess before declaring victory, pursuing the survivors into the hinterlands where many were killed. A year later, Lt. Rountree was sent to Cape Palmas to respond to another Grebo insurgency there. Another officer, Capt. Elridge T. Hawkins, served as a clerk for the American legation in Liberia before commanding LFF detachments against the Gbandi in 1913 and in Cape Palmas in 1915. Hawkins resigned his commission in August of 1915 after being passed up for command in favor of Capt. York
Capt. Moody Staten, the last U.S. LFF commander, 1923-1927
Colonel Young came back to West Africa in 1920 with a fresh group of officers for Liberian service but he died in Nigeria two years later while on a reconnaissance tour of the region. The 1926 Firestone Agreement brought rubber production and American capital to Liberia, resulting in the appointment of Colonel George W. Lewis, a white American military contractor in 1930, forcing Capt. Outley to resign. Col. Lewis never left Monrovia and did nothing as an adviser until his resignation two years later.
‡Capt. William Nabors (b.1897-1960), had first come to Liberia with Col. Young in 1920 along with Capt. Allen Bean and Capt. Henry Atwood. He later served as a special military adviser to the LFF from 1936-1942. Serving stateside during the inter-war period with the New Jersey National Guard, Capt. Nabors was a vital asset to the U.S. and Liberian governments during the construction projects of 1942-1943, which improved roads and built an American airbase in Liberia.
Flintlock muskets would not have been uncommon to see in the villages of the hinterlands as late as the early-1920's though some of the indigenous groups like the Greboes of Cape Palmas were well armed with modern weaponry that had been smuggled through the porous borders of Liberia. In December of 1914, the LFF had 540 enlisted soldiers along with seventeen commissioned Liberian officers and five U.S. advisers. Following a reorganization of the LFF which began in May of 1928, all of the old cadres were purged. Sources state that by 1937-38, the force had close to 900 troopers and officers enrolled. In 1956, the LFF was renamed the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), amalgamating all of the nation's military forces, fully ending the U.S. constabulary tradition established in 1910-1912.
Suggested Further Reading
The Uncontrollable Force: A Brief History of the Liberian Frontier Force, 1908—1944 By: Timothy D. Nevin. The International Journal of African Historical Studies Vol. 44, No. 2 (2011), pp. 275-297.
African American Officers in Liberia: A Pestiferous Rotation, 1910-1942 By: Brian G. Shellum, Potomac Books, University of Nebraska Press, 2018.
Liberia and the First World War 1914–1926 By: Harrison Akingbade. Department of History, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Accessed January, 2020.
A Splendid Type of Colored American: Charles Young and the Reorganization of the Liberian Frontier Force. By: Claude A. Clegg. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 29, no. 1 (1996): 47-70.
Buffalo Soldiers in Africa: The U.S. Army and the Liberian Frontier Force, 1912-1927-An Overview By Timothy Rainey. Liberian Studies Journal XXI. (1996).
